Bent rescues point for Aston Villa

Darren Bent came off the bench to rescue a point for Aston Villa in their 1-1 Premier League draw at home to Midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion on Monday (AEST).

Bent, Villa's club record signing, was among the substitutes as Paul Lambert started with Gabriel Agbonlahor and Christian Benteke up front.

The England striker, with national manager and ex-Baggies coach Roy Hodgson watching from the stands at Villa Park, had only been on the pitch 11 minutes when he cancelled out Shane Long's opening goal.

"Obviously it would have been nice to play from the start, but I managed to score the goal to get a point," Bent told Sky Sports.

"It's obviously been a difficult couple of weeks, losing the captaincy first off, then finding out I wasn't playing today. But we battled all the way through and we got the point.

"The start of the season's been up and down. Obviously we had a good result against Swansea, but then we got beaten 4-1 by Southampton before getting a great result against Manchester City (in the League Cup).

"Today we showed signs that we are heading in the right direction and we've all got faith in the manager."

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